Outreach

Discussion Question: Drawing on project you worked on, what role did end users play? How did you involve end users?

Key Questions to Ask of your tool: Who would use this and why? How do I get them to use this?

Five Components of Outreach
I like to think about outreach as building and engaging with existing communities of software users, evangelists, and potential code contributors. In this view outreach involves at least five very different roles/tasks.
1. Usability testing
2. Marketing and publicity
3. Documentation (guides, tutorials)
4. Acting as an ombudsman
5. Sustainability

Three Different Outreach Stories

Zotero
End users: undergraduates, graduate students, scholars, and anybody else interested in doing research.
Potential evangelists: librarians, research methods instructors
Example outreach methods: blog, practitioner publications, conferences, train-the-trainer workshops, twitter, conferences

Omeka
End users: librarians, curators,
Potential evangelists: librarians, curators, programmers, web designers,
Example outreach methods: end user workshops, developer conferences

National History Education Clearinghouse
End users: K-12 history teachers, curriculum coordinators, and anyone else involved in K-12 history education.
Potential evangelists: K-12 history teachers, curriculum coordinators
Example outreach methods: direct mail, print newsletter, practitioner conferences

Trevor’s 5 Outreach Suggestions
1. Outreach sounds like it starts at the end, but it should be a bit more ever present. It starts with a conception of audiences. Who are the end users? Who can I get to promote this to those end users? Make this part of your upfront planing process.

2. Understand outreach as a value proposition for your end users. The more time and energy it takes to get your tool to do whatever it is supposed to do the better it’s payoff should be.

3. If possible, leverage existing communities. If you can offer a clear value proposition to an existing group you don’t need to gather them together.

4. Spending time convincing people who convince people to use your tool can be far more effective than spending time convincing people to user your tool.

5. Look more reputable. People are scared that software will eat their data. Try not to let that happen. Ease their concern by connecting the project with things people trust.

Further Reading:

Jin, L., Robey, D., & Boudreau, M. C. (2007). Beyond Development: A Research Agenda for Investigating Open Source Software User Communities. Information Resources Management Journal, 20(1), 68-80.

Krishnamurthy, S. (2005). Launching of Mozilla Firefox – A Case Study in Community-Led Marketing. URL http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.59.687

Garrett, J. J. (2002). The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web. Peachpit Press.

Brown, D. (2006). Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning. New Riders Press.